Group Therapy
by NuttyRoyale
Summary: Sometimes, talking it out and being there can help. Even at the end of the world. Originally written for The Day After Tomorrow ficathon.
1. Lying Alternative Rockers

Title: Group Therapy

Characters: Craig, Ashley, Emma, Paige, and Spinner.

Summary: sometimes, talking it out can help.

Author Notes: This is an edited version of the story. The original will be posted at my website ASAP. Otherwise, I don't remember or know if Degrassi Community School has three floors or not, but for fictional purposes, there is one. "The End of the World As We Know It" is Michael Stipe's; _Degrassi_ belongs to its creators, and so on and so forth. The title comes from the name of the scene in _The Breakfast Club_ when the kids all sit around and start talking about Serious Things.

Emma had been crying for hours. She'd tried to call home time after time, hoping that her mom would pick up, but all she got was the answering machine. She tried the salon, but no one picked up there either. Finally, about eight o' clock that night, she stood up and walked to the window and looked out at the now-flooded Degrassi Street. "Figures I'd be here when global warming finally happened," she said sarcastically.

"Aren't you happy that you're right for once?" Paige responded. She regretted being snide with Emma, mostly because she didn't really feel like being mean. _Not knowing if your brother is alive does that to you,_ she thought, trying not to lose hope that Dylan and Marco were okay and sitting in some multiple story building, complaining that there was no cell phone reception.

Across the room, Craig was mournfully looking through a stack of pictures he had somehow managed to salvage before the water had crashed through the first two floors of the school. Photographs had always brought him comfort because they were happier times frozen and on glossy or matted paper. Pictures of him with Joey; pictures of him with Angie; pictures of him with Joey and Angie… a single photograph of his mother, and one of his father. All day, he'd tried not to cry, he'd tried to be strong for Emma, who not only had an entire family unaccounted for, but a friend. The last she and Craig had seen Manny Santos was in the hall about a half hour before the water began gushing in. Losing both of his parents had been hell enough, but at least he'd had Joey. Now he was Craig Manning, Super Orphan. In the dimmed lights of the upper parts of the school, he let himself cry just a little, for himself and for Emma.

The room was silent and still, the five remaining students not knowing what to say. Paige had tried calling the emergency line earlier, and then she'd progressed to letting everyone use her cell phone to call friends, family members, and other people, just to check up. Nothing. Spinner, who was usually the first to make pee-pee, poo-poo jokes had been frighteningly somber, muttering the occasional stray curse word. Craig had roamed the halls (well, the _hall_, the first two floors were now flooded), looking for other survivors. Emma sat and worried. And Ashley, who was usually quick to have an opinion, sat in her own corner, silent. She hadn't said a word since she'd wandered into the vacant classroom, her jeans wet and a look of complete shock on her face.

Craig wiped his eyes with the back of his hands, then laughed just a little. "You know what?" he said aloud. The other four stared at him, waiting for him to finish. "Michael Stipe was a liar."

Paige glared at him. "What?" she asked.

"Michael Stipe. The lead singer from R.E.M." Craig sniffled, and wiped his nose. "You know. That song. Something about it being the end of the world as we know it." For the first time since that morning, he found himself chuckling a little. "What a lie. It's the end of the fucking world, and I don't feel _fine._"

The girls looked slightly baffled, but Spinner got it. He let out a small snort, then began to laugh so hard he let out a loud fart. "I know it's not that funny, but it's nice to laugh again."

"Did you ever think you'd be around for this?" The sound of Ashley's voice, soft and wavering, shocked Craig. She pushed her bangs behind her ears, and moved closer to Spinner, Paige, and Emma. "You know. Destruction. The end of the world; whatever the hell this is."

Paige shook her head. "No. Never."

"Me either," Spinner admitted.

"I'd always hoped I wouldn't be," Emma said, rubbing her eyes.

"You think anyone's going to be able to find us?" Paige asked. "I mean, there _has_ to be like, an emergency group or something that is looking for survivors. Somebody has to be out there… _somebody_…"

"I don't think so." Spinner hated to say it. "Unless there's a Coast Guard boat that survived or something."

Paige sighed heavily, then broke into tears again.

It was ten o' clock, and after a little more crying, the five students talked more about random topics.

"What do you wish you could eat right now?" Emma asked, only to be answered with groans.

"We haven't eaten in _hours_," Ashley complained.

"I've heard that if you're ever in a position where you're extremely hungry, the leather in your shoes is okay to eat," Craig added. "What? It's true."

Ashley leaned her head on Craig's shoulder, surprising him. Natural disasters had a way of making people forget previous transgressions. "Worse comes to worse, we could eat Spinner," she whispered to him.

"Hey! That's cannibalism! That's illegal!" Spinner shouted.

"Nothing's illegal at the end of the world, Spin," Craig joked.

Joking, Paige added, "Besides… you have plenty of meat on your bones…"

"And people wonder why I'm a vegetarian," Emma scoffed.

At one A.M., Paige, Spinner, and Ashley were all asleep. In the darkness, Emma sat next to Craig, his arm wrapped protectively around her. "I can't sleep," she said, pulling her hair back into a ponytail. "I don't want to. I'm scared I'll dream about something normal and think it's how things still are, and I'll wake up and be back here, alone."

Her words made Craig's eyes water over. "You're not alone, Em," he whispered. "If so, we're alone together."

The two of them silently walked toward the window, and watched the reflection of the moon dance on the water.


	2. Survival Tactics

Title: Group Therapy

Characters: Craig, Ashley, Emma, Paige, and Spinner.

Summary: sometimes, talking it out can help. Even at the end of the world.

Author's Notes: This is the edited version of the story, the original will be available at my website ASAP. Otherwise: Okay, okay. I decided to continue "Group Therapy" a little more. Just possibly. I mean, what would it hurt? Besides, we all want to know what happens to the five remaining _Degrassi_ kids when things go from being all _Waterworld_-like to freezing cold. The devil made me do it, I swear. Okay, the devil in the form of Frank the Bunny from _Donnie Darko_. Oh hell, I am just doing this because I'm going to see _The Day After Tomorrow _again when my friend gets back in town on Monday. Yeah. (Jake Gyllenhaal has pretty eyes, yo. But that's irrelevant. Or not… ahhh.) And, as always, the title comes from _The Breakfast Club_, the movie the _Degrassi_ ep "Take on Me" is based on.

"Holy crap." Spinner stood in front of the window, mute. "I can't believe this."

Craig rubbed his eyes. "This can't possibly be real," he mumbled. He knew that was probably the dumbest thing he'd ever said, considering that he was stranded in his school with four other people because torrential downpours had flooded the first two floors, and that event in itself was crazy enough to make one believe that _anything_ was possible. "It's snowing."

Paige laughed. "Man, Americans would love this," she responded. "They seem to be under the illusion that it's always snowing here."

"And that there are Mounties everywhere," Spinner responded.

"And that we say _a-boot_," Craig joked. After the first two or three days of being trapped and going through the seven stages of grief, he'd somehow managed to slightly accept his plight of being stuck. "Can't believe it's snowing, though."

Ashley walked into the classroom that she and her friends had been holed up in for the past few days. "I found some food," she said, dropping an armful of brightly wrapped packages onto a desk. "It has next to no nutritional value, but it'll keep us going for a little bit."

Spinner jumped at the mere mention of food. "Thank whatever invisible force up there that is still possibly watching over us," he said, dashing over to the desk and picking up a package of Hostess cupcakes. "It's not a cheeseburger, but at this point, anything is good."

"Guess I better get something," Emma said. She picked up two packages of peanut butter crackers and opened the cellophane. Craig, Paige, and Ashley each picked up miscellaneous packages and sat in silence, chewing. "Crackers?" she asked, offering the last two in the package.

"Gladly," Spinner said, reaching out for the crackers. Paige slapped his hand, and he snatched his hand back, whimpering. "What? I'm hungry!"

"We have to save food, Spin," she said.

Emma sighed and looked at the dismal scene outside. "And we need to find a way to stay warm," she said, rubbing her hands together. The day the school had flooded was a chilly day, so all five of them were wearing jeans and coats, but if the temperature ended up dropping more… "Maybe we should move to the teacher's lounge. They have a stove in there, right?"

Ashley nodded. "Yeah, but the stove's electric, Em."

"Well, there goes my idea," Emma said. "We just need a controlled fire in _something_."

"How about we just cross that bridge once we get to it?" Craig asked.

"Because frankly, I don't feel like freezing to death," Emma commented. "Do you? I mean, I don't mean to sound like Paige…"

Paige scowled. "I heard that."

"…but really, it _could_ get colder. And if it does, I don't think what we've got on is going to cut it."

The other four teenagers sat, an awkward silence among them. "She has a point," Ashley finally said. "Let's see if we can find anything." She smiled wanly at Emma. "Or, for that matter, anything to start a fire with."

"Look what I found!" Spinner shouted, rolling the garbage can he'd found in one of the upstairs washrooms down the hall and into the teacher's lounge. "It's perfect! We're going to be like real New York bums now, if we've got any lights."

Emma grinned once she saw the metal can. "Spinner, if you didn't have a girlfriend, I'd kiss you right now," she exclaimed.

"I found lighting fluid in one of the labs," Ashley said, waving the small can of fluid over her head. "And matches."

Craig and Paige came in the door, each carrying an armful of textbooks. "Reading material?" Spinner asked, scrunching his nose in disdain.

"No, genius." Craig rolled his eyes.

"Hon, we're burning them," Paige smiled. She wagged a geometry textbook in front of her boyfriend, then tossed it into the trash can. "This is kind of like that book we read in Mrs. Kwan's class. You know, the one where there was that law passed and they burned all the books."

"Fahrenheit 451," Ashley finished. "Ray Bradbury." After Paige and Craig dumped the last of the books into the garbage can, Ashley poured the lighter fluid in. "I believe we're currently reenacting one of Spinner's favorite dreams."

Spinner laughed.

"And, because of that, I say that we let him light the match."

Emma handed the box of matches to Spinner. "Don't burn down the _rest_ of the school," she warned.

"Hey, don't worry about it!" Spinner exclaimed. He struck the match, and as it flamed up, he added, "I'm not one of those people who like to watch things burn. A… pyromaniac." He flicked the lit match into the can, and with a _whoosh_, the books inside the can were consumed with fire. "That's _much_ better."

Craig and Emma huddled closer to the fire. "Well, at least we won't freeze," Craig whispered, sticking his hands closer to the can.

"I'm grateful for that much," Emma responded.

That night Craig decided to stay up and watch the fire. Actually, it hadn't been much of a decision; it was due to the fact that he couldn't sleep. He hadn't had a good night of sleep in _so long_. He sat up, looking out the window as the snow kept falling, occasionally ripping out pages from a chemistry book to crumple up and throw into the fire.

"Craig?" Emma was awake too. She moved over to him and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. "Can't sleep?"

"I have chronic insomnia," he joked. "It's so weird. What if we're stuck here 'til… until…?" He didn't want to finish the sentence. "I'm trying to have hope about us getting found and getting out of here and everything, really. I mean, c'mon, someone has to be out there, right?"

"I'm hoping the same thing," Emma responded. She closed her eyes for a second, then hummed a familiar old song. Craig hummed with her, then spoke. "You know what would be really crazy?"

"What?"

"If we were like, the last people on Earth."

Emma rolled her eyes. "I don't even want to imagine that prospect." She leaned her head on Craig's shoulder, then sighed. "This isn't… bad for you, is it?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean… you and Ashley aren't exactly freezing each other out anymore."

Craig turned to face Emma. "If we want to survive, we've got to be civil to each other," he said. "We're cool now. But I don't know if, you know, any romantic prospects are open right now, what, with the water and the snow and everything." He reached for her hand and entwined his fingers with hers. "Don't worry about it."

"Are you sure?" Emma asked. She hadn't noticed how much closer Craig seemed to her, that he was attempting to make eye contact with her. It was only when he gently tilted her head up towards him.

"I'm really sure," he whispered before gently kissing her.

"Craig—" Emma slowly broke away. "I… it's so weird."

"Weird good, or weird bad?"

"Ahem."

Craig and Emma turned around, to find Ashley behind them, smiling. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I… I'm just going to the bathroom, okay?"

Craig stared vacantly at her. "Um, okay," he said, watching her walk out the room. "Man. Awkward."

Emma nodded in agreement. "Totally. Why'd you do that?"

"Kiss you? Because… I wanted to." He nervously ran his fingers through his hair. "Besides. You can't keep feeling kind of miserable now and everything. And, well, because what's really wrong with a little kiss… at the end of the world?"

Emma found herself laughing softly, in spite of herself. "Even if it _isn't_ the end of the world, I'm okay with it." She leaned closer to Craig, and, for the first time in days, she found herself feeling just a little safer and at ease with whatever the coming days would bring.


	3. Flashbacks to Yesterday

Author's Notes: My friend never DID call me back so we could go see the movie again. GRR.

Oh, err, yeah, this is about the story! Well, I got the idea for this chapter late last night. I don't know what exactly spawned it. But I found myself wondering, _How exactly did Paige, Spinner, Craig, Ashley, and Emma end up becoming the only five people left? And what exactly could've happened to ensure this?_ So I got up and started doing this, and I'm very, very, pleased with the way it turned out. But this probably won't be the end of "Group Therapy", because this chapter—and the one before it—provides me with a little more stuff to work with. Yay! I'm happy about it because I really _have_ dug writing this story.

As always, _The Day After Tomorrow_ and _Degrassi_ are not mine, and if they were, I would've been able to boss the Jakes (Epstein and Gyllenhaal, that is) around on the sets. The title comes from _The Breakfast Club_, which is, in my opinion, one of the Best Movies Ever.

-----

When she really thought about it, Paige knew that if she and the remaining four hadn't been at school early that day for whatever reason, they probably wouldn't be alive right now. And when she took this into consideration, she felt an overwhelming sense of guilt. She felt that she didn't deserve to live any more than anyone else, than her brother, Marco, her parents... She was just a pretty, popular, prissy girl. Survival of the fittest didn't apply to her. It was better suited for Emma, who was resourceful, or for Spinner, her lovable yet clueless boyfriend, who was excellent at finding food and had exhibited great strength in rationing. She was supposed to live for a short time, then die tragically and guarantee that everyone remembered her because of it.

She could still remember the day it happened a bit too vividly for her liking. She had gotten Dylan to drop her off at school early—7:15 early—so she could make up a quiz for Ms. Hatzilakos's science class. Spinner had gotten there early too, and he was waiting for her by Ms. H's room. "She's not here yet, you know," he said, casually glancing at her from his position leaning on the wall.

"I'll give her fifteen more minutes," Paige groaned, leaning against the wall. Only a few other students were actually in the building, and even fewer teachers. The bulk of the student populace didn't start flooding into the school until 7:30 and 7:40. On a typical day, Paige didn't arrive until ten minutes before the first bell rang at 8:10.

But, as they would later learn, this would be no typical day.

-----

It was 7:19, and Emma Nelson was taping posters for S.I.T.E. up on the second floor. Ashley Kerwin was doing the same thing downstairs, and she barely noticed when Craig Manning walked in a side door. Their long-held hostility had managed to simmer down within the past few months, but he was still slightly awkward around her, and vice versa. "Howdy partner," Ashley said, feeling a little silly. "Why are you here so early?"

"I've got to pick up a bunch of prints I developed yesterday," he said. Even though he had become increasingly more interested in his band lately, Craig was still very much a photographer at heart. His camera case was as ubiquitous as his black leather jacket. "I've got a bunch of other prints in here…" he jiggled the camera case—"and I'm thinking of doing some kind of mixed media thing for my final project in the class."

She smiled at him. "Cool. I'm... taping posters to the walls."

He returned the smile. "I see."

"I'll see you around, though," she said, pulling the roll of tape around her wrist. "Got to go towards Media Immersions. I haven't put a poster up over there."

"'Bye," he called after her.

It was 7:22.

-----

7:31, and people were slowly beginning to pour into the school. 7:31, and Manny Santos was wandering the halls, looking for Emma. 7:31, and Paige and Spinner were still waiting.

"I swear, she could've just asked me to come in at lunch or something," Paige snapped. "I could've had at _least_ an hour more of sleep."

"Maybe she's caught in traffic, or she couldn't find any clean underwear or something," Spinner replied.

Paige rolled her eyes. "You _would_ think about Hatzilakos not being able to find clean underwear." She closed her eyes, and tried to recall the things she needed to remember for the quiz. So many facts... covalent bonds, how could she possibly remember those kinds of things? And it wasn't helping that she could hear what sounded like gushing water...

_Water?_

"Spin, do you hear that?" She didn't like thinking that she was the only one hearing things. She wasn't fond of seeming insane.

"What, besides people talking?"

"It sounded like water."

"Paige, sweetie, I think that you're still just a _little_ tired, and—" Spinner stopped talking. "I hear it too."

-----

In a side hall, Craig was sitting in a slightly empty stairwell, flipping through his new prints. They were only landscape and nature shots, but he was proud of them because of the fact that they were the first set of prints he'd done in color that hadn't turned out bad. The first time he tried to process color film on his own, he ended up "burning" the film. The second time, the film had processed fine, but the color quality in his prints was abysmal. This time, everything had worked out pretty well. Satisfied, he stacked them back together and slid them into his camera case. He would drop them off in his locker before class. Just as he was getting up to head to his first floor locker, he paused. _Did I just hear a wave?_ he wondered. _That's impossible. There's no beach near here._ Laughing, he readjusted his camera case on his shoulder. "You're crazy, Manning," he mumbled to himself.

-----

7:36. Ashley was taping her last poster in the shop hall when she heard it.

At first, it was a dull roar; kind of like that of an audience in an arena before a concert starts. Ashley twirled the roll of tape around her finger anxiously, wondering what on Earth could be inside—or outside—that would make that kind of noise. She opened her messenger bag, promising to shove the tape inside shortly, and was walking down the hall as the noise began to crescendo, growing louder and closer and closer... She stopped in the main hall, looking around to see what it was, and happened to look out the front door in enough time to see it: a huge wall of water, headed directly for the school.

Paralyzed with fear, the roll of tape dropped from her hand. _What now? What now? Oh God, what do I do?_ Her breaths were quick and she felt a large lump forming in the back of her throat.

Outside, the water was coming closer by the second.

Finally, one thought came to her mind. _Run._

For once, Ashley fought her instinct to question every one of her thoughts. For probably the first time in her life, she didn't second-guess herself. And as the water crashed through the front part of the school, she turned and ran.

-----

Paige and Spinner were walking down the hall that led to Paige's locker when they heard the screams. "What is going on _now_?" Paige asked, exasperated.

Spinner audibly gasped at the sight. "Paige, RUN!" he shouted, grabbing her by the arm, breaking into a sprint.

"SPINNER!" Paige shouted. "Let GO!" She tried to break free of his grasp, but couldn't. Instead, she tried to look back to see what exactly had made Spinner freak out.

Behind her, water was pouring down the hall at a steady rate.

"Oh my GOD!" she screamed. "What—how—we need to get to the second floor!"

The two teenagers sprinted to a side hall, and quickly dashed up a side staircase. "I don't think we should stop," Spinner said. "We should go to the third floor, just in case."

"Why?" Paige asked. "I mean, we should be just fine here..." She stopped when she realized that water was starting to spill into the hall. "Third floor is fine," she responded quickly.

-----

Emma couldn't stop shaking.

She had spotted the wave about four minutes earlier. At first, she thought she was just seeing things, until she realized it covered buildings. A wave of panic engulfed her. What would happen to her mother? Jack? Her friends?

She needed to do _something._

Dropping the remaining S.I.T.E. posters to the floor, she ran to the hall that allowed her to look down on the first floor of the school building. She had to tell them. She had to let them know. Just as she stopped and was getting ready to yell, "There's a wave headed right for the school!" water gushed through the front doors.

She was too late. The only thing she had to do now was to save her own self.

Her legs were trembling as she ran up the stairs that led to the third floor of the school. She was certain that she would collapse on the stairs, fall, and possibly be engulfed by the water. _I can't do that! I have to make it up there!_ Driven by her desire not to drown, she pushed herself to scale the last set of stairs. Once she was midway down the hall, she collapsed in front of a vacant classroom.

She couldn't believe it. It was almost like that movie, the one with Elijah Wood in it about the comet that hit Earth and made a huge, tsunami-sized wave sweep over the coast. But that was a movie. That was impossible. Maybe the ice caps had finished melting, and the wave was the result of the sudden rise of the oceans.

For once, Emma hated that she was such an environmentalist.

"Hello?" she called out to no one in particular. "Anyone up here?" She couldn't be the only student left. She just _couldn't_—or, at least she _hoped_ she wasn't. "Is _anyone_ here?"

"Emma?"

_Who knew that I'd ever get excited about hearing Spinner Mason's voice?_ Emma thought. "Spinner! Is anyone else with you?"

"Yes! It's just me and Paige, though." Spinner and Paige appeared from the end of the hall. Both were obviously winded, and Paige looked shell-shocked. "This... is... unreal. Un-fucking-real," Spinner rasped. "I mean... I... what...?"

"My thoughts exactly," Emma responded.

-----

Bleary-eyed and exhausted, Ashley wandered aimlessly down the hall. She was on the third floor, and she was beginning to get worried. She hadn't seen anyone since the wave had hit and she'd started running for the upper levels of the school. She had never been so terrified in her life, and she want to begin to fathom what she would feel like if she was the only one who had gotten up there...

Voices. She heard voices. Voices _talking._ She wasn't the only one who'd made it.

She turned two more corners, and when she saw the four people sitting together, leaning on the wall, she abruptly burst into tears. Paige, Spinner, Emma, and Craig had _all gotten to the third floor in enough time._

"Ash," Paige breathed. "Oh, Ash." She stood up and walked to her friend, wrapping a comforting shoulder around her. "Come on, sit down."

Still sobbing, Ashley dropped to the floor. She couldn't think of anything to say. It was as if the wave, the screaming, swimming around bodies, and everything else had rendered her mute. She leaned her head on Paige's shoulder, her tears flowing freely.

Paige softly patted her friend's back. "It's okay, hon, it's okay," she whispered, knowing she was lying just to reassure Ashley. She didn't notice when Spinner wrapped his own arms around her waist, as her eyes were starting to fill with tears. "We're together. We're going to be okay."

To her right, Ashley felt another pair of arms around her. Emma was crying, too. "I don't know what happened," she sobbed. "I should've told people sooner. I should've..."

Craig found himself stuck in the middle of a hugging, sobbing mess. Under ordinary conditions, he would've been annoyed by this, but he couldn't find it in himself to be. He looked at Spinner, wondering how he was holding up, only to see that Spinner was teary-eyed too. Leaning his head back against the wall, he closed his eyes to keep back the tears of his own. He had no idea how to comfort his friends. He didn't know what exactly had caused the wave to hit the school. He didn't know what would happen to him next. He didn't know if they were the only survivors, even. All he knew was that, for the first time in a while, he didn't feel alone in the world. _That,_ he thought, _is probably the only good thing about this disaster._


End file.
